US African Development Foundation Reviews

Upper Management is terrible and prioritizes maintaining total control over the agency over running it well. New initiatives are announced seemingly at random based on which corporate execs they have been drinking or doing god knows what else with. The board of directors is AWOL except where they are actively prioritizing terrible and self interested strategic partnerships. Overworked DC employees have neither the bandwidth or the incentives to properly screen partner team work resulting in corruption and bad grant making. This Agency Runs On Burnout, while I was there it had 70% turnover, there are maybe 3 people left in the whole agency who understand how it was run even 5-10 years ago. Standard operating procedure is made up on the fly by people with no memory of or access to prior procedures, resulting in an agency that is incapable of learning from its mistakes or improving. None of the other problems will be resolved as long as turnover is sky high.

USADF P/CEO Travis Adkins is hugely toxic. He has created a work environment that breeds fear, anxiety, and health problems. He yells at employees at will, fires people on a whim, and rules by fear. Several employees have reported experiencing mental and emotional distress due to Adkins' behavior. The toxic work environment has also led to high turnover rates and difficulty recruiting new talent. The organization is dwindling, and there seems to be no accountability. Where is Board Chairman Jack Leslie? Please remove Adkins from USADF for the sake of the grantees the Agency supports. USADF is not his personal branding arm. Our grantees deserve better! Jack Leslie and the USADF Board, please take this seriously and do your due diligence! USADF's employees are suffering.